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Black youth and Durham high school students plead with N.C. state house representatives for action to combat gun violence
NC Policy Watch
By Greg Childress
“Thoughts and prayers” are no longer enough to protect children from gun violence, says Durham Hillside High School Principal William Logan.
Gun violence proliferates, Logan said, because guns are too readily available, and lawmakers are unwilling to pass meaningful gun control laws.
“We can continue to send thoughts and prayers every time this happens and lament over the loss of any life, not just the life of a student, or we can make tough decisions and do what we need to do to get control of people who aren’t supposed to have guns in our community,” Logan said in a recent interview with Policy Watch.
“I don’t know if I’m going to be here from one day to the next”
The “this” that the soft-spoken, but stern school leader referred to is the senseless death of a 17-year-old Hillside High student who was shot and killed on the American Tobacco Trail near the high school on Feb. 8. A 15-year-old was also shot and wounded during the attack but is expected to recover.
It has been a particularly tough couple of weeks for Logan and the Hillside family. The death of the 17-year-old unnamed student hit the campus hard. Students met with counselors virtually last week during what Logan described as a “wellness day.” Teachers met with the counselors and therapists face-to-face.
A shining light amid the darkness that always comes when a young life is taken has been Hillside’s drama students and dance company. The students have given several performances of an original play titled “State of Urgency” which takes on gun violence, police brutality, racism discrimination, poverty, and other social ills.
The play was well received Friday when it opened before an engaged audience of several hundred people that included lawmakers and local elected officials with the authority to make the kind of changes that the young performers demanded.
Qiyamah Hart, a Hillside senior and actor, said state officials and school leaders must work to make schools safe spaces for students.
“We witness this [violence, racism, social injustice] on a day-to-day basis and that is not normal,” Hart said shortly after Friday’s performance. “We normalize things that shouldn’t be normal. We normalize bringing guns to school, we normalize fighting, we normalize the wrong things in life.”
This month’s shooting death of a fellow senior “broke her heart,” Hart said.
“His parents had to bury him yesterday [Feb. 16] and that was sad to see because he won’t get the opportunities that I’ll be getting — or supposed to be getting because I don’t know if I’m going to be here from one day to the next. I’m scared because I don’t know who is bringing a gun to school or who is ready to do what because of their mental instability.” Read more here.
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